Throughout the road salting period I normally try to run my engine up to temperature and slip the clutch to keep it free from welding itself to the flywheel.

Yesterday was nice and sunny and so I went to start up the SS. Unfortunately my battery is now about 15 years old and so cranking speed was, shall we say, one cylinder at a time.

There was no sign that she would catch, the load on the battery was clearly too much for good ignition and so after about three tugs on the starting handle she started.

The battery is a traditional hard rubber job with filler caps and lead inter-cell connectors. It is the second one I have bought from my nearest battery supplier (D.B. Wilson, Glasgow) and has given good service as did the first. Unfortunately, I understand that they no longer manufacture traditional hard rubber batteries so am trying to figure out what I should do for a replacement.

The batteries I have been using to date look OK but they are not really correct because they lack the fixing lugs and I was never able to find a supplier of 12 volt batteries that still provided these.

That said, I do have an old dead battery that is the correct size and has lugs and I could probably find a supplier who would rebuild it as original but to be honest I'm getting lazy and dislike topping up batteries and risking acid spills so I was wondering if I could cut the top off my old battery and somehow arrange to make connections to the old terminals from a small modern sealed battery. The old top would be complete with all its fillers and interconnectors and would be held in place by the original fixing method using long bolts through the lugs.

Some say thatís a bit expensive but it looks original. The only problem is you lose the original filler caps. I see you have the Lucas rubber ones. Iím trying to find a glue that will allow me to attack the tops of my caps to Ďtheir threadí. Iíve just bought some Gorrilla glue to try.

Yes thatís Ďas wasí. My iPad seems to have lost some of my pics. because I know I took some when I got the battery back and how I had tried to glue two parts of the old and new caps together with superglue.......It failed so now Iím going to try the much vaunted Gorilla Glue.

I think Gorilla glue varies - there are several types. The one I bought is one that needs to be applied to one piece, while the other piece has water applied to it. The water activates the glue, but also produces an expansion. This didn't work well for me as it seemed to lead to most of the glue coming out of the side of the joint leaving only a small amount to actually stick.

But last time I was in Halfords I noticed there are lots of different types of Gorilla glue now, and no-one in my local branch knew what the differences were.

Have you thought about using liquid butyl windscreen rubber,i have used it for all kinds of jobs last one recently was to refit knob [plastic] back on my freezer temperature adjuster being rubber its ok with acid, you should be able to get a part tube from a car windscreen company.

a possible marketing gap here for a new sealed typo silver whatever battery with a clip on cover that looks exactly like old style lead bars across cells. no need even be lead . plastic that looks like lead or a cheap alloy will suffice. imagine all those car clubs..old batteries that owners would like to see looking old but in fact brand new!